Saturday, December 26, 2015

Did you know that the day after Christmas isn't called Boxing Day in the USA? They don't even call it anything, it's just December 26th!

Well, I didn't know that until today, and the thought of my ignorance just seriously freaks me out. I mean, this is the fortieth Boxing Day I've spent on this planet, and while the first few of them were before the internet existed and America was just this sort of magical fictional place where they had all the cool Transformers toys that we didn't, Wikipedia's been around for quite a while now and I've been in regular contact with American friends since at least, ooh, must be 1998. How has this not come up in conversation?

What else am I taking for granted as a universal concept when actually it's just a silly local thing? I mean, it was freaky enough when I learned that they don't have Christmas crackers over there either, but Boxing Day?

Sunday, December 20, 2015

It's like a sort of dull, colder version of summer around here at the moment. I'm not saying I want snow and ice - in fact, this weather's just fine for me, thanks - but there's automatically something disappointing about not having a white Christmas...